Recent Posts in NYC

March 29, 2015

Spring is here and today (3/29) is opening day for Coney Island's 2015 season. Unfortunately, iconic wooden roller coaster The Cyclone got stuck on the way up to the first big drop...on it's first public ride of the season. From CBS:

Erica Hoffman, a spokeswoman for Luna Park, said the ride was shut down while technicians work to repair it. Officials are hoping it will be closed no more than an hour or two.

Luna Park opened at noon. The amusement park will be open weekends until May 22, when it opens every day for the summer. It will also be open the entire week of April 6, Spring Break for most area schoolchildren.

The Cyclone made it's opening "ceremonial" run with no problems before getting stuck.

March 20, 2015

photo: a hip (sad) day in Hoboken for Maxwell's last show, 2013 (more by Ken Bachor)A website called FindTheHome recently published an articles declaring they've determined the "19 Most Hipster Cities in America." Topping the list: Hoboken, New Jersey. #2 is Ames, Iowa. Neither New York City or Brooklyn made the list. (Neither did Austin or Portland.) How exactly did they determine what a Hipster city was?

Using our places data, we at FindTheHome determined four important attributes that define a "hipster city" and found 19 cities that fit the bill (and surprisingly, Portland is not one of them). We first decided to only look at cities with over 50,000 people that also had a high population of people between the ages of 20 and 34. Then we looked at the cities with a fairly educated population (a high percentage of residents with at least a Bachelor's Degree), many cafes and yoga studios.

January 20, 2015

Manitoba's, the Avenue B dive bar owned by Dictators frontman "Handsome" Dick Manitoba, has been an East Village fixture since 1999. But its days may be numbered after a recent legal dispute that has them paying a hefty settlement...or face closure. They've launched an Indiegogo campaign in hope of raising $25,000. Manitoba's explains:

Due to a small wrinkle in the interplay between State and Federal law, Manitoba's was recently forced to reluctantly settle a case with a private individual for a cumbersome amount that threatens the future of the establishment.

Our backs are against the wall. Our ONLY choice, after being advised by several very competent lawyers, was to settle.

Manitoba's, its proprietors and patrons, are the very fiber of the East Village - The same East Village that is now being commoditized at an alarming rate and manifesting itself in the form of tenants in expensive apartments levying noise complaints at 8pm.

This is a battle cry for help. Please don't let Manitoba's meet the same fate as other business institutions that have recently been forced to close.

Understand this please,,,,,, this situation is not part of what you would call, "business as usual" .....It's not a fine, and it's certainly not business mismanagement. We either pay, or shut down. Not one penny goes into the owner's pockets, or is being used to pay bills. All of it goes to settling this claim and keeping the bar open.

In addition to the crowdfunding campaign, Mantitoba's says there will also be "auctions, concerts" to help raise money.

Bands felt like Death By Audio was a second home - indie phenoms Future Islands and wild Canadian rockers METZ both played their first ever New York shows at Death By Audio. It was the kind of place where a small fledgling band had a good chance of playing on the same bill as a much bigger, touring band. And one day, that fledgling band might just become a headliner.

You tended to get just as much as you were willing to put in: if you attended or played shows there regularly, there was a good chance you'd get to know the staff there, as well as other regulars. Those were the people who made up the bulk of the crowd last Saturday night - some of them who since moved to other cities even flew across the country to be there. It's also why there were a lot of tears, hugs, and positive energy going around in the final hours.

Impose gathered up tributes from a variety of artists, DbA employees and other people in the DIY scene, including manager/booker/soundguy Edan Wilber:

The value of what I have gotten from my experiences here are immeasurable, and leaps and bounds more valuable than any material wealth I could've gained doing something else. I have met people from all around the world just because they heard about this little room that some friend of their's said they just had to play in. It's a shame to lose something like that because it can't be manufactured. We have always run on the best of intentions and it propelled us so far for so long, none of us could've imagined it would've lasted as long as it did and stayed true to its beliefs from day one. I'm happy to go out on such a high note, the past few weeks have been mind-blowingly incredible and I have gotten to see many old friends make their pilgrimage here one last time and I look forward to a few more rad weeks before we are forced out of the only place in NYC thats ever felt like home to me.

For those who'll be in Washington, DC next weekend, many of the in-house created, super-hard arcade games that you may have played in DbA's back room will be on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's courtyard on December 6 as part of an "indie arcade" curated by MAGFest and American University's Game Lab.

We've got all of Death by Audio's last month's shows listed, along with video from many of them, below...

November 25, 2014

We have lots of LPs that have never been in any of our sales before--huge section of jazz and lots of rock, pop, soul, hip-hop, you name it! Quite possibly we have the most vinyl we've ever had. Prices are generally much less than you will see in local stores or on-line, since we have only a week to move them out.

The ARC sale will also feature books and videos. This sale will have more than 700 books about jazz for sale. Plus books about every topic you can imagine. Videos? We will have VHS and DVDs of all kinds, lots of old movies, some classics and some crazy stuff.

PLUS: There's the ARC Mart, sort of a thrift store within the record sale, that will have kitchen items, clothing, and all sorts of stuff.

If you're an ARC member there's their also-annual cocktail party Thursday, December 11 where you get first dibs on this year's wares.

And as we're in the giving season, you can donate unwanted records and CDs to the ARC. It's tax-deductible and they even come to you.

Q-Tip leading protests in Times Square last night (photo via @alphajada)

Last night it was announced that the grand jury decided not to indict Ferguson, MO police Officer Darren Wilson in the August shooting and death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. Protests sprung up all over the country. In NYC, Q-Tip lead protests in Times Square chanting "Whose streets? Our Streets!" and "Don't shoot! Hands Up!" Instagram videos of him in Times Square can be watched below.

Meanwhile, much much closer to the center of the story, Run the Jewels were performing in St. Louis, Missouri. Killer Mike, who sang about the police "terrorizing whoever, but mostly black boys" in his hyper-political song "Reagan," gave a moving, tearful speech during their set. "I knew it was coming...I knew it wasn't going to be good, but you motherfuckers got me today. You kicked me on my ass today, because I have a 20-year-old son, I have a 12-year-old son and I'm so afraid for them." You can watch it below.

Macklemore also took part in a protest in Ferguson, which Seattle King5 News has a clip of here.

Lots of other musicians expressed their feelings on social media. "I'm heartbroken over the news of no indictment in Ferguson. Let's all pray for peace," Pharrell Williamstweeted. Talib Kwelitweeted, "I feel really bad for the family of Mike Brown. To my brothers & sisters in Ferguson my heart is with you & I will join you soon."

Azealia Banks also went on a long Twitter rant about it, saying, "What makes it even worse is the fact that I sleep with white men..... LOL" and "I might have to kill one of these crackers in their sleep !!" but then "Lol, I'm joking." She also got more serious and said thingslike, "But something seriously has to be done about this shit. I don't want to hear about another unarmed black kid being shot by the damn cops. It's so discouraging, just as a young black person, to know that people like me can be murdered and have there be no real justice." Read many more of her tweets here.

Not every musician was against the ruling. Gun expert Ted Nugenttweeted, "DarrenWilson did good MichaelBrown did bad justice is served."

Video of Killer Mike's speech in St. Louis and Q-Tip in Times Square, below...

November 17, 2014

Some are saying that the closing of venues like Death By Audio and Glasslands is ushering in the death of Williamsburg, but we all know that the neighborhood has been changing since the artists and hipsters first moved in, and that the death related to gentrification of the gentrifiers is already old news with many of the settlers already moving on to cheaper and grittier apartments in Bushwick.

Some are arguing Bushwick has jumped the shark as well, with folks hightailing it to Ridgewood, Queens. Perhaps evidence of that: this year's edition of the nightmare-before-Christmas that is SantaCon has left its traditional home of Manhattan, skipped Williamsburg entirely and gone straight to Bushwick, according to Bushwick Daily. The event, which for the unfamiliar features a horde of insanely drunk people dressed as Santa on a bar crawl, happens December 13 from 10AM to 2PM at various points in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Estimated attendance: 30,000. Maybe not the day to take your parents to Roberta's, just saying.

November 13, 2014

It was a sad day when East Village Radiosigned off back in May, shutting down their 1st Ave storefront studio, and their many live & recorded radio shows along with it (Invisible Oranges included). But it makes us happy to exclusively announce that EVR will return very soon! The comeback happens via the recently-launched Dash Radio network. The 1st Ave studio is getting a redesign with new equipment and technology. Some EVR programming and DJs will return to EVR 2.0, and there will be new shows and produced specials too. More details and the actual relaunch date will be announced shortly, but the plan right now is for EVR to be on the air before we reach 2015. Stay tuned, as they say in radio-land. Check out the new logos above.

EVR general manager Peter Ferraro, who told us "it feels great to be back!", co-founded Dash Radio with Scott Keeney (DJ Skee), and will also be launching Brooklyn Radio in early 2015 which will be broadcast from an EVR-like, store-front studio on N. 7th and Wythe in Williamsburg. Brooklyn Radio, also on Dash, will be EVR's sister station. More details on that coming soon as well, but meanwhile we have some pictures of the construction you can view below.

In addition, EVR tells us that former hosts of Atlantic Tunnel on EVR, Edward Rogers and Gary (Gaz) Thomas, will have their own station on Dash Radio which will be based around their former EVR show. Other channels already on Dash include Odd Future Radio, Skee 24/7, Dash Indie, XXL, and a SideOneDummy Records presented channel called 'The Basement'.

November 7, 2014

When CBGB closed in 2006, owner Hilly Kristal and club talent booker Louise Staley carefully dismantled the interior and have had it in storage ever since. "Hilly wanted them to live on. He saved them for exactly this type of occasion," said Staley in a press release. You may have seen some of that in person last year at the 2013 CBGB Fest. Bedford & Bowery reports that now parts of the famed NYC club's walls, cash register and phone booth are on display as part of YouTube Space NY studios which are on the sixth floor in the Chelsea Market building (also home to NY1, Food Network, Oxygen and more). (They've got their own bathrooms, thanks.) The space, which you can reserve if your YouTube channel has over 5000 subscribers, hosts workshops and other events. No word on how long the relics will remain there, but there is a public happy hour at the studios on November 20 that you can RSVP to.